Professor Peter Swenson: Disorder: A History of Reform, Reaction, and Money in American Medicine

October 31, 2022

Professor Peter Swenson has a new book out entitled “Disorder: A History of Reform, Reaction, and Money in American Medicine.”

Abstract:

Disorder: A History of Reform, Reaction, and Money in American Medicine meticulously traces the dramatic conflicts both inside organized medicine and between the medical profession and the larger society over quality, equality, and economy in health care.

Addressing topics such as public health, medical education, pharmaceutical regulation, and health care access, Swenson, the C. M. Saden Professor of Political Science and faculty fellow with ISPS, paints a disturbing picture of a century of entanglements involving medicine, politics, and profit seeking. Disorder explains why the United States remains the only economically advanced democracy without universal health care, why the quality of care – despite exceptionally high health spending – leaves much to be desired, and why the public health system is, as the Institute of Medicine puts it, “in disarray.

Swenson’s incisive look into the problematic relationships among medicine, politics, and business in America and their effects on the nation’s health received honorable mention from the American Political Science Association for the 2022 Greenstone award for best book in politics and history.